Aaron ben David Cohen of Ragusa

Aaron ben David Cohen of Ragusa (* around 1580; † 1656 ) was a rabbi and merchant in Ragusa (now Dubrovnik ).

Aaron was a maternal grandson of Solomon Ohev (Oef), who also worked as a rabbi in Ragusa. He studied first in his hometown and later in Venice . He then returned to Ragusa and ran an import-export business there, which developed into the most important Jewish commercial building in this city. As a supposed accomplice of Isaac Jesurun, who had been accused of an alleged ritual murder , he was imprisoned together with his father in 1622.

In his will, Aaron made provision for the posthumous printing of 800 copies of Zekan Aharon's work (ie “Aaron's Beard”; published in Venice 1657). It contains his literal interpretations and allegorical commentaries on the Tanakh and other books of the Bible as well as tracts on the Talmud . It also contains the treatises on the Bible by his grandfather Solomon Ohev, which are summarized under the title Shemen ha-Tov (ie “good oil”). In an appendix - reprinted separately in Venice under the title Ma'aseh Nissim in 1798 - a report on the blood charge against Isaac Jesurun is given.

literature

• Gotthard German: Aaron ben David Cohen of Ragusa . In: Jewish Encyclopedia , Vol. 1 (1901), p. 8.
• Aaron ben David Cohen of Ragusa , in: Encyclopaedia Judaica , 1971-72, Vol. 1, Col. 9 f.